


it's going to take a lot

by ThisJoyAndI



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Discussion of Abortion, F/M, Pre-Canon, Young Alice and FP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 15:03:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14523222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisJoyAndI/pseuds/ThisJoyAndI
Summary: (to drag me away from you)'If she tells him, she knows FP will do the right thing and stand beside her but they’ll end up hating each other, barely speaking and throwing glasses at each other whenever they do.'





	it's going to take a lot

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhh, teen angst

The night will forever be etched into Alice’s memory in fragments – the sound of Bon Jovi’s latest hit pounding through the speakers as Fred and FP take a break from performing, the smell of sickly sweet punch spiked with an unknown substance slipped out of Fogarty’s pocket, the feeling of her dress, stretched far too tight over her belly. They’d all bought their dresses months ago, her, Mary and Hermione, the very act of shopping somehow morphing into a competition between them all as they all paraded around in a series of dresses. Hermione, with her smooth skin and curves, would look good in anything, whilst Mary’s dresses had to accommodate her height and complexion. Alice had originally thought to choose a simple black dress, but somehow when the hours long shopping expedition drew to a close she was holding tight to a bag that contained a shimmery emerald green dress, worth almost as much as a month’s rent at Sunnyside. Paid for by her latest activity with the Serpents, and definitely not worth the risk they had all taken that night, FP panting for breath behind her as they sped off on her bike. A wiser girl would have saved that money like she tried to do with the rest of it, especially when the dress didn’t even fit her anymore. Nothing could disguise the bump that has seemingly appeared overnight, Alice holding her clutch a little self-consciously in front of her stomach as she posed for photos with Hal, his tie emerald green to match her dress.

The bump makes everything all too real – if she thinks for even a second about the bump, she is not a teenage girl attending Homecoming with her all-American boyfriend, she is a teenage girl who has been frequently sleeping with a boy she’s known for years as well as Hal, a girl who is now pregnant because of her choices. All she has ever wanted to do is leave the trailer park and her drunk, useless father behind, and being with Hal gives her that opportunity, more than being with the Serpents ever could. Her grades are good, and she’s certain that she’ll be accepted to one of the colleges she’s chosen, but without connections, without help, all of her hard work means nothing.  And this baby, this bump, threatens to derail all of her plans – she’ll end up like her mother, waiting until she deems her child old enough to look after themselves before leaving in the dead of night. And if she tells him, she knows FP will do the right thing and stand beside her, but they’ll end up hating each other, barely speaking and throwing glasses at each other whenever they do. She can’t do that to them.  

She’ll tell Hal. She’ll let him believe that it’s his, and a Northside boy like him will be honour bound to help her deal with it. When they find out his parents will despise her even more than they do now, but she was a fool to think she was ever going to win them over. To them, she is no better than the dirt under their shoes. But they will help her deal with the situation, desperate to protect their good name and Hal’s reputation. They will likely be furious at him, when he hasn’t done anything wrong. It’s FP that’s to blame, FP and his charming, easy grin, thrown carelessly over his shoulder at her. It’s her own stupid foolishness, falling back into bed with FP time and time again, even though she should really know better.

Hal will believe her. He has to believe her. She doesn’t want to keep the baby, not when she has nothing to offer it, but surely Hal’s parents will be able to arrange a quiet, quick adoption. There’s no reason this baby shouldn’t go to someone who wants it, no reason that it should go unloved.

But Hal, it seems, has another idea entirely in mind. When she tells him her news, dragging him backstage away from everyone and lowering her clutch away from her abdomen, his face immediately pales, all colour leaving his cheeks. He blinks rapidly for a moment, before expelling loudly, rubbing at his brow. “You’ll get an abortion,” he tells her, as nonchalant as anything. To her ears, ‘ _you’ll get an abortion_ ’ sounds the exact same as ‘ _would you like some punch Alice?_ ’ “I’ll pay for it, of course.” His chest almost puffs up at the thought and she almost laughs– such a chivalrous man, paying for his girlfriend to abort someone’s else baby.

Instead, she looks at him, her mind barely able to comprehend what he is saying. Then, in a flurry, she spits back at him, almost in a hiss, “No, I will not.” Her hand hovers over her belly as she speaks, but she doesn’t dare touch it. It is a separate entity, one that she doesn’t dare recognise.

“Alice,” Hal says, donning a tone which is all too familiar to her. This is his ‘Alice, don’t be silly’ voice, the one he adopts whenever she tells him that his parents abhor her and would most likely throw a party if they saw another girl by their son’s side at their dining table. He inhales, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Please.”

“I’m not getting an abortion,” she tells him. “I will gladly put the baby up for adoption, but I am _not_ killing it!”

“Don’t be silly, Alice. What, you’re going to give birth to this baby and then just give it up? You’ll change your mind, and we’re too young to be parents. You want to go to college, get a journalism degree, don’t you? How are you going to do that with a baby?”

“I’m not going to change my mind,” she murmurs, petulant. Doesn’t he know her at all?

“You will.”

“No, Hal, I _fucking_ won’t!” she screams, uncaring of how loud she's being. There’s no-one around them, and the music is loud enough to drown out her voice. “What, you think I’m going to doom this child to a life of misery, a shitty childhood, just like mine? When I could give it to a couple who really want it, someone who can care for it and love it more than I ever could?” She shakes her head, furious. She isn’t sure at what. “I am not killing this baby Hal. Unless you physically restrain me and bribe some doctor to perform the operation on me, I will give birth to this baby, and I will give it up. And then I will go to college, and whether or not you are by my side is entirely up to you.”

Her throat is dry. She needs some punch, and she’s capable of getting it herself, Fogarty’s spiking be damned. She whirls around on her heels, storming away from Hal and lowering her clutch back into place.

She doesn’t notice the dark head of hair that has heard every word she just uttered, but when Hal comes to her on the dancefloor and offers her his hand, regret in his eyes, it is FP’s gaze she meets over Hal's shoulder, the father of her baby strumming away on his beat-up guitar as Fred sings into the microphone.

I’m doing this for us, she wants to say. We’d be terrible together, and you know it as much as I do. And our baby deserves better than that – better than the Coopers, even. But she says nothing, merely lets Hal twirl her around the dance-floor, the very picture of young love.   

"King and queen of hell," FP says more than twenty years later, and god if he isn't exactly right. 


End file.
